Latest Offenders Banbury

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THE face of a young man jailed for jailed for assaulting a 14-year-old vulnerable girl with the mental capacity of an 11-year-old has been revealed in an official police photograph.

Benjamin Brookes, of Brunswick Place in Banbury, was found guilty of three counts of sexual activity with a child and one count of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity after a week-long trial at Oxford Crown Court.

The 26-year-old was found not guilty of one count of sexual activity with a child.

He was jailed for three and a half years at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, February 29.

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A sexual predator who abused two young girls after plying them with alcohol and cannabis kept his head in his hands during a Sheffield Crown Court hearing, as he was forced to listen to the devastating impact of his crimes.

Despite being judged to have 'no empathy whatsoever' for the two girls he abused, Darren Oldham barely looked up to face them as he was brought to justice, during a hearing held at the court on February 7, 2024.

Sending Oldham, aged 35, to prison, the judge - Recorder Ian Mullarkey - said his sexual abuse had 'touched almost every aspect' of his victims' lives, and had caused 'perhaps irreparable damage'.

One of the two girls - both of whom were just 14-years-old at the time of Oldhams offending - said she has not been in education since the abuse took place, and has 'missed out' on taking her GCSEs. The girl, in her statement to the court, said she has also lost a dramatic amount of weight, going from eight-and-a-half to six stone, as she attempts to come to 'come to terms with what has happened'.

"I do not feel like myself anymore. [After the abuse] I couldnt shower or do anything without breaking into tears. After what happened, I began to look differently at men, I even began to look at my own granddad differently," she said, adding: "I already had anxiety and depression, but obviously this has made it worse, a lot worse."

"Ive lost all my friendswe were close before but since this I dont want to do anything. For the last year Ive done nothingIve changed as a person since Darren did this to me, and its not changed since."

Speaking directly to Oldham through her statement, his second victim told him: "You ruined my mental health, you made me want to take my own life because of the trauma you caused. I struggle going to schoolI feel like every male will hurt me. You made me feel like that. I feel a shell of a person whos angry because of the trauma in my life."

"I hope you get punished, you deserve to rot in jail," she continued.

The court was told how Oldham abused the two girls - who are not known to each other - in separate incidents, which took place in Rotherham and Cornwall, seven months apart.

Prosecutor, Michael Collins, told the court that Oldham gave both and alcohol prior to carrying out the sex offences.

In addition, in both cases, the two girls were rendered unconscious - with one falling asleep after being given cannabis and one being knocked unconscious after he forced her head back, causing her to hit it on a rock - during the course of Oldhams abuse.

The shameless sex offender persisted with the abuse while the girls - neither of whom can be named for legal reasons - were unconscious, and they both awoke to find him on top of them, the court heard.

Recorder Mullarkey told Oldham: "What we have here are two 14-year-old girls intoxicated by you, asleep or unconscious. Its difficult to think of a more vulnerable situation."

He added: "There was this pattern here, of plying young girls with intoxicants."

Mr Collins said that after abusing one of the girls, he pretended to be asleep after she pushed him off, and fled the scene after the other girl 'screamed' out for help.

Oldham was wanted by South Yorkshire Police for several months, before being located charged with sex offences in connection with the two incidents in November 2023.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of assault on a female 13 and over by penetration with part of body/a thing at an earlier hearing.

Defending, James Baird said Oldhams best point of mitigation was his guilty pleas, which were 'effectively entered' at his first hearing before Sheffield Crown Court.

Mr Baird continued: "Your Honour knows he is the product of the care system, taken into care at the age of 11he started abusing drugs at a very early age, 12 or 13, and there is also a serious drink problem."

Mr Baird said Oldhams substance misuse issues intensified following the death of his daughter, adding that he was intoxicated at the time of both sets of offences, something Mr Baird said he advanced as an explanation, but did not seek to suggest it as a point of mitigation.

Referring to the conclusions reached by the author of Oldhams pre-sentence report, Recorder Mullarkey told him: "You have no empathy whatsoever for the victims of your offending, and fail to recognise the seriousness of your offending."

He jailed Oldham, of Middleton Road, Banbury, for nine years, and said he felt it necessary to also impose an extended licence period of three years - bringing his total sentence to 12 years.

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A convicted sex offender told police they would find his CV on a seized memory stick – before coming clean and explaining it contained sick child sex abuse images, a court heard.

Christopher Brown, 34, was also found to have flouted the terms of his sex offender notification requirements by spending the night in an – adult – woman’s bed, spending more than 12 hours living away from his registered home.

When police contacted the woman at the start of this year, she was unaware that the man with whom she had been sleeping was a three-times convicted sex offender. She had been seeing the man since October 2021. 

 Brown claimed to have been confused about what he could do under the terms of his notification requirements. He even produced a ‘schedule’ for detectives, trying as best he could to list the times and dates he had been at the woman’s home.

Prosecutor Alex Radley told Oxford Crown Court that during a first search of his home, Brown initially suggested that his curriculum vitae would be found on a memory stick that had not been registered with police.

Later, he confessed: “I’ll be honest. My CV isn’t on the memory stick. There’s stuff there I shouldn’t have.”

The defendant’s devices were analysed and, in total, he had 804 images and videos in the worst category, 252 in category B and 43 category C videos. He had three ‘extreme’ pornographic videos.

Brown, of South Street, Banbury, admitted possession of indecent images and breaching sex offender notification requirements.

The court heard he was first put on the sex offender register in 2016, when he was given a suspended sentence for indecent exposure. The 10 week sentence was later activated after he failed to comply with the court order.

He had since been convicted of having indecent images of children and breach of a sexual harm prevention order. 

A probation officer, going through her pre-sentence report with the judge in court, said she was recommending an immediate prison sentence – to the slight surprise of the judge.

Brown had been given a number of previous chances to comply with the probation service, she said.

Mitigating, Gordana Austin said her client recognised his offences had been committed when he was ‘on his own, lonely’. From living on his own, he had moved back in with his parents.

He was said to have previously worked as a chef then cycled through agency jobs before being taken on as a handyman on constructions sites – a job that he enjoyed.

Recorder Paul Reid jailed the defendant for a total of two years. 

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A teenager pestered underage girls to send him naked pictures.

Joe Law, now 22, sent vile messages to eight Facebook profiles purporting to belong to young girls in 2018 and 2019.

But at least five of the girls were actually members of so-called paedophile hunter groups, posing as girls aged 12 to 14 in an effort to catch would-be abusers.

Oxford Crown Court heard that Law sent repeated requests for the girls to send him pictures of their bodies despite being told they were as young as 12.

When one of the youngsters told him she was at school, he wrote back: Well, go to the toilet, then. You wont get into trouble by doing that. Or do it after school when youre in your bedroom.

Another girl, who was asked for sexy pics of herself, was instructed not to tell anybody about their conversations and ordered to delete their Facebook Messenger conversations.

On April 5, 2019, members of group Catching Online Predators or COP staged a sting, going to Laws home in Banbury. He wasnt in, with his mum calling police to report there were people outside her property taking pictures and asking to speak to her son.

Law was later reported missing. Two days later he called West Mercia Police to say that hed seen the appeal and reassuring them that he was safe. He met officers in Hereford and was arrested in connection with the illegal chats.

The conversations with at least one decoy Facebook profile continued after his arrest. Asked by the girl why he got into trouble, he told her that there were individuals trying to make me go to prison and that hed been warned not to talk about it.

Despite the warning shot across his bows, he asked the girl during a game of truth or dare in their Facebook Messenger conversation to send him a picture of her body and boasted of being 6ft 7ins tall.

Messages found on his phone after his arrest pointed to him speaking to another four girls aged between 11 and 14 in addition to the four girls linked to differed vigilante group.

He was interviewed by the police and claimed not to remember the Facebook interactions, telling detectives hed been in a bad way at the time. Its all on my phone so I cant deny anything, he said.

Law, of Artizan Road, Northampton, pleaded guilty at the magistrates court to attempting to cause a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and attempted sexual communication with a child.

He was given a three year community order, a sexual harm prevention order until further notice and must sign on as a sex offender for five years.

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Jamie Mobbs, 27, claimed he was lonely and had been looking for a girlfriend. He told the ‘girl’, with whom he chatted on Facebook and Instagram, his real name, age and profession – before peppering her with sexual topics and asking her to send explicit images of herself.

Sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Michael Gledhill QC told Mobbs he should be ‘thoroughly ashamed’ of himself.

He said: “You are a rather pathetic character who lives a very lonely, isolated life. You may very well want a normal life and to meet somebody to have a proper relationship with and I fully understand that. You do not go about that by seeking out 13-year-old girls.”

Prosecutor Isobel Delamere told Oxford Crown Court that Mobbs had begun chatting to the ‘girl’ on Facebook on February 6, 2020.

The ‘girl’ – actually a decoy account operated by a so-called paedophile hunter vigilante group – told him she was 13 and from Watford. Mobbs said he was 27, a factory cleaner and asked for a photograph of her in her school uniform.

Later in the day, he turned the conversation to relationships and asked her to send pictures of her underwear. He also sent her pornographic images.

He continued to send explicit messages and even asked offered to pay her £500 to ‘cuddle and kiss me and suck my w***y’. He offered to show her his genitals but warned her against telling others. Mobbs also sent three videos of himself performing a sex act.

The defendant spoke about coming to Watford to have sex with the girl and sent a link to Google Maps showing how long the journey down would take.

He was confronted at his home in Banbury on February 9 by members of the vigilante group and the police were called.

Interviewed by officers, Mobbs claimed he’d been trying to explain to her ‘how relationships work’ and said the video of him performing the sex act on himself was ‘more educational’. There were no indecent images of children on his phone, but he had searched for terms including ‘how old do you have to be to wear a thong’.

Mitigating, Gordanna Austin said her client had a number of learning difficulties including autism and Asperger’s Syndrome that would make an immediate prison sentence particularly difficult. He was remorseful and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Mobbs, of School View, Banbury, admitted attempted sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause or incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempted sexual activity in the presence of a child and attempting to arrange the commission of a child sex offence. He had no previous convictions.

He was ordered to pay £1,000 costs, carry out up to 50 rehabilitation days and abide by a 10 year sexual harm prevention order. He will be a registered sex offender for 10 years.